Sunday, 25 May 2014

Peanut butter chocolate truffles

These delicious truffles could not be simpler to make but
they do require a bit of planning as the ganache needs time to chill properly
in the fridge. I was inspired to make
these after Mr CC and I were served them with our tea/coffee at the end of very
nice dinner to celebrate Mr CC’s birthday.

The ones we were served in the restaurant had been rolled in
cocoa powder, which I’m not a fan of in its raw form, so I used digestive
crumbs instead. Curses! I am typing this post at mid point in the
process – my ganache is cooling in the fridge.
Unusually, Mr CC is sitting next to me while I’m typing and has noticed
that I’ve chosen not to roll them in cocoa....long story short, half will now
be in biscuit crumbs, half in cocoa!

I have noticed a curious thing about digestive biscuits:
when I buy them to put in my biscuit tin and wish them to stay whole I will
open the packet and find several broken, even though I have carefully laid them
in the top of one of my bags of shopping and treated them as though they were
made of glass. When I buy digestive
biscuits to turn into a cheesecake base or any other recipe that involves
smashing them into crumbs I will casually toss them into any of my bags of
shopping – in with the potatoes and milk?
Why not? They will be doing the work for me! – and they will come home
with not so much as a crumb chipped away.

Peanut butter and chocolate is a lovely combination for
anyone who enjoys that salty/sweet flavour mix.
I challenge anyone to stop at one truffle! I tried cutting one in half to try and convey
the rich, dense texture but it looked a bit crumbly because I cut it straight
from the fridge thinking it would give a cleaner cut. Moral of this story? When in doubt, bite it in half:

Ganache making is a wonderful process; I never quite trust
that the chocolate will mix in but it’s wonderful how it does!

I used a small melon baller to scoop the ganache into
individual truffles. You can tidy the
balls up by rolling them in your hands but don’t waste a lot of time on this
because, once they are rolled in cocoa or crumbs they look smooth and round
anyway. I made mine quite small – I like
a truffle that you pop into your mouth whole and treat like a shot! This mixture made me over 60
truffles....hurray! Don't limit yourself to serving them as chocolates - how about using them as decadent cupcake toppers, or cheesecake decorations....in fact, any chocolate dessert?

I have a pathological fear of making ganache ... every time I've tried, the chocolate has split & I've ended up with a disgusting, greasy, gloopy mess! Seeing these little balls of chocolaty goodness makes me want to give it another try. I mean, how hard can it really be?!?!?!

Hi, I'not really as fearful as Sue, but the ganache has split. Never happened before! WHAT did I do wrong???After cooling, some of the fat had become solid and disgusting on top of the ganache. As we do not have double cream in Germany I used 30% cream. This should be even less fatty.Please help.Xxx JJ

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